Recently, I found the project “Bitmessage”, a P2P network to send encrypted, email-like messages. It’s a very cool idea and I hope for it to spread more widely.

The idea is pretty simple: firstly, you generate a key-pair and create a Bitmessage address, using your key’s fingerprint (the addresses are similar to Bitcoin addresses). The public key is send into the network to every user so everybody has everybody’s public key. To send a message, you need the Bitmessage address of the reciver. With that address, you regenerate the fingerprint of his public key, encrypt the mail with that key and send it to everybody in the network. Only the reciver will be able to encrypt the message and knows that this message is ment for him.

One big advantage to encrypted e-mails is, that the reciver stays completly anonymous because it is impossible to make a connection between a encrypted message and a Bitmessage address. Another advantage is, that the network is decentralized and doesn’t need any central servers.